Warehouse 13 Season Two   Starring: Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly and Saul Rubinek Universal Playback RRP: £29.99 8283154 Certificate: 12 Available 19 September 2011

Follow the adventures of Secret Service Agents Peter Lattimer and Myka Bering as they are tasked with overseeing the mysterious Warehouse 13. The government’s secret hiding place for all manner of supernatural and extra-terrestrial artefacts, the warehouse becomes the agents’ base of operations as they are charged with the job of retrieving missing objects and investigating alleged new ones...

I have to admit that I found the second season of Warehouse 13 a lot less enjoyable than season one. I think that the main problem is that the characters don't really grow over the course of the show and it becomes very much an artefact of the week style of show. Yes, there is a sort of story arc running through this season, with the inclusion of H.G. Wells (Jaime Murray), but it only loosely ties things together. It's almost like they've taken an episode revolving around H.G. Wells and broken it up and peppered this season with elements of a one episode story.

Genelle Williams, who plays Leena, is terribly underused. In fact they only seem to allow her to pop up every once in a blue moon so that we realise she's still there.

Universal Playback seem to have seriously screwed up the running order on this DVD release, as not only is there an episode missing (Secret Santa) but the season finale (which was originally a two part episode when broadcast) has two other episodes between it. And, as the first episode (Buried) ends on a cliff-hanger and the second episode (Reset) picks up where the other episode left off, having two other standalone episodes between the episodes makes no sense at all.

Extras include Deleted Scenes (which are included on each disc for the episodes on that DVD); Gag Reel (3 min, 18 sec); A Thilleromedy (7 min, 34 sec behind the scenes look the ethos behind the show); A Stitch in Time (3 min, 21 sec look at the H.G. Wells theme running through this season. Although, beware as this is housed on disc two and contains a huge spoiler for the season finale. So those that watch the extras on each disc as they go through them might like to skip this until they've watched all the episodes); Video Blogs (15 min, 56 sec featurettes that give a taster for the show's second season; look at the Eureka/Warehouse 13 crossover; the relationship between the two main characters; an explanation of what Warehouse 13 is and an exploration of the supernatural element); Artifacts (4 min, 02 sec look at some of the artefacts); Photo Gallery; Designing the Warehouse (6 min, 31 sec look at warehouse and prop design); Crossing Over (42 min, 01 sec. This is the Eureka episode that features Claudia); and Audio Commentaries for Merge with Caution and Reset.

Notable guest stars in this season include Jewel Staite (Stargate Atlantis, Firefly, Serenity), René Auberjonois (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Armin Shimerman (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) and Laura Harris (Dead Like Me, 24)

While the show has its moments, it's predominately aimed at the young and the serious lack of advancement on characterisation means that this is a show that you're very unlikely to want to rewatch an episode of.

5

Darren Rea